Cypress Creek Town Center Development Begins

By Matt Wiley | @NTWCNews

If you’ve been driving along S.R. 56 near Wesley Chapel Blvd. (aka S.R. 54), there’s a good chance you’ve noticed quite a bit of activity on the north side of 56. No, it’s not the long-awaited Tampa Premium Outlets mall, but development officially has begun on the Cypress Creek Town Center (CCTC) Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which has laid dormant for years.

Tampa-based Sierra Properties owns about 170 acres in the DRI that will be developed in two phases, including 40 acres on the south side of S.R. 56 and the rest to the north. Sierra’s parcels on the north side of the DRI (where construction crews currently are working), are zoned for a 600,000 sq. ft. retail center, 56,000 sq. ft. of “highway commercial” (think fast food, restaurants and retail shops) development, 120,000 sq. ft. of office space, up to 300 hotel rooms and 630 units of multi-family residential development. Sierra is preparing for vertical development (those new restaurants and businesses) sometime in the first few months of 2015.

“What we’ve started is the construction of the first phase of the interior roads (on the north side of Cypress Creek Town Center),” says Sierra Properties vice president Michael Sierra. “But, we’re just getting started.”

The property south of S.R. 56 is zoned for 400 more hotel rooms, as well as 40,000 sq. ft. of more highway commercial space to the west of the Wesley Chapel Blvd. extension, which already stretches south of S.R. 56 to one of two entrances (the other is on S.R. 56 itself) to the 1.1-million-sq.-ft. regional outlet mall, that is being developed by the Simon Property Group.

Sierra says that the current DRI site plan has the property separated into discernible parcels, but that the land has not yet been “platted” and the outlined parcels on the map on this page are mostly for organizational purposes.

“(Sierra Properties) is not yet ready to come out about who’s coming (to the north side of 56),” Sierra says. “It’s going to be an assortment of restaurants and retail, but I don’t want to speculate. It’s going to be great for the area.”

Meanwhile, Down South…

A new site plan was submitted to Pasco County back in March for the Tampa Premium Outlets, but there hasn’t yet been much visible activity  on the southern portion of the DRI, other than the completion of some of the interior roadways (including the Wesley Chapel Blvd. extension).

A representative from Simon declined to comment on the progress of the development of the outlet mall or what stores could be coming. 

However, Pasco zoning administrator Carol Clarke says the county is in the process of reviewing the site plan and getting comments back to the developer.

“The building plans (for the mall) are quite complex,” Clarke explains, adding that the complexity makes it difficult to give a timetable for their approval. “(Simon) is doing a lot of things to get this (project) going. But, we’re really excited that this is happening.”

We will update you on the progress of this development any time more new details become available.